MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Thursday undertook to continue for two more weeks its earlier statement of not taking any coercive steps against ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd which runs Republic TV. There would also be no action against its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in connection with the Television Rating Point (TRP) manipulation case, for the same time period.
Bombay high court bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale had on Wednesday asked special public prosecutor, Shishir Hiray to inform on Thusrsday whether state and Mumbai police wished to continue its investigation against Goswami and ARG Outlier. On Thursday public prosecutor Deepak Thakare appeared before the bench and said it wished to continue the investigation.
"We have a right to investigate. We have some material", said Thakare appearing with Hiray. He added that they will require some time to finish their investigation into the case.
The hogh court bench asked how much time would they take.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Goswami and his company to quash the FIR in the alleged TRP scam or to transfer investigation to the central bureau of investigation (CBI).
"There is a concept of a welfare state. All those reasonable parameters should be there. State on its own has to stop at one place. It cannot go on for years. The investigation is going on for more than three months and two chargesheets have been filed, hence we want to know how much time the state will take to finish its investigation," remarked the court. "We are not asking any stipulated time to finish the investigation because it is not provided in the law."
The judges orally observed that in a democratic setup, "what is most important is faith of common citizen in system and to continue to have it, test of reasonability and objectiveness should be kept in force."
Adjourning the hearing to next Monday, justice Shinde said, "Do not misunderstand that we have formed any opinion. We are just having dialogue."